KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Mimi Johnson may be young, but her taste in desserts is timeless.
"For cakes, vanilla. And then cookies? I love sugar cookies," she said.
The 8th grader loves to eat, make and decorate cookies.
"It's like something I just like to do by myself," she said. "It's very, like, calming and relaxing."
Mimi, 14, makes gorgeous cakes, cupcakes, and cookies and often displays them on her Instagram or brings them to her classmates at Webb School of Knoxville.
"I'm hoping in the future, I would just love to have like a little cookie business," she said.
In a way, she's already started that business by helping feed those in crisis.
"Over spring break, we weren't going anywhere, and whenever I have like a big amount of like free time, I love to bake," Mimi said. "My mom had like given me the idea of like, let's do like cookies for a cause."
This isn't the first time Mimi's used her baking skills for good. She's sold cupcakes at school bake sales. Mimi also sold cookies and lemonade to benefit an organization that feeds people in Nepal, which is where she was adopted when she was 3 years old.
The cause she and her mom chose this time is World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit devoted to providing meals during natural disasters and humanitarian crises.
Right now, all their focus is on helping those impacted by the war in Ukraine.
Mimi started making and selling cookies with Ukraine-themed colors and designs.
"Of course the flag," she said. "I did the sunflower because it's their national flower and then just hearts because like we care."
All those yellow and blue cookies, and the cause Mimi believed in, had lots of people coming to her with donations.
She sold a bag of four cookies for a donation of $25 or more.
She got more and had to bake more.
"It was like around 70, I think? I don't know. Yeah, a lot of cookies," Mimi said.
Dozens of cookies and one surpassed goal later, the grand total was in.
Mimi raised $845 for World Central Kitchen, just in the week she was on spring break.
"I thought it was great that we did something where we like could give back," she said. "That made me feel very good about myself because I love doing stuff like that."
Mimi is no stranger to fundraising, and though spring break and this particular fundraiser are over, she has no doubt she'll work to help the world through baking again soon.